NOT FOR PUBLICATIONINSTITUTE OF CURRENT WORLD AFFAIRS

WH 14Fiesta at Paucartambo. Walter S. RogersInstitute of Current World Affairs822 Fifth AvenueNew York 6, New York

Hotel FerrocarrilCuzco, PerJuly 23, 1955

Dear r. RoersIn the days of the reat road systems of the Inca Empire, the "tmbos"

served assinns, dispatching points and army Earrisons. According to WilliamPrescott A. "the tambos were erected, at the distance of ten or twelve milesfrom each other, for the accomodation, more particularly, of the Inca and hissuite, and tse who journeyed on public business. There were few other travelersin Per." Perhaps the most important "tambos" were those lying on the roadstraversing the country from the Capital at Cuzco to the four regions of Tawantn-suyu, the Inca State. Named Ollantaytambo, Limatambo, Paqareqtambo and Paucar-tambo, they occupied strategic positions some fifty to seventy-five crow-flyingkilometers from the Capital. The c_hasu’s or couriers could easily reach anyone of them in a day’s runninG

Last week, we made the trip to Paucartambo, now capital of a province, to,itness the fiesta held in honor of one of the town’s two heavenly patrons, theVirgin of Carmen. There were three of us Dr. Oscar Nuez del Prado, an ethno-logist from the University of Cuzco; Euis Barreda urillo, his assistant; andmyself. We left Cuzco early one mornin loaded down with cameras, recordin

machines and cameras, sleepin bas and extraLa Viren del Carmen asoline. The road followed a small stream

that runs down the center of the large basinthat lies to the southeast of the city. Onthe lor of the valley and the slopes be-yond, acienda owners as well as small com-munity farmers had used every inch of landthey could for aricultural purposes. Someof the hillside patches of 0arley and wheatwere so steep that a man could easily falloff them unles he held on with one hand andworked with the other.

After n hour’s jouncin over the wash-board "highway", we turned off onto a narrowroad and began climbing out of the basin. Afew minutes of drivin within a few feet of adrop which increased from hundreds to thou-sands of feet as we snaked up the cliff con-vinced me that the "autoridades competentes"had been eniuses when they declared thistrail a one way road. If at tt moment atruc ad appeared around one of the hair-pin curves, negotiating te descent in theusual Peruvian style motor turned off,transmission in neutral this area eneralistwould have become a eneral aerialist inshort order.

1. The_,,C.onques._of r

At the op of the cliff, the road turned northeast, taring us through roilingarren country typical of the u 2.. ven at 4,000 meters, the land was beingcultivated by communities orf Indians. In each ton that we passed, groupsof men were working in the fields with their digging sticks or patch.ing up the holesin that portion of the road which lay vJithin their coaunity boundaries. In theseayllus, labor is performed by the connunity, and the men work together on eachproject or individual plot of land. Off on the far slopes, the women were herdinsheep, sittin n the sun on the hillsides, nursin their babies or spinningbrightly colored yarn on their pruitive whorls. The old people sat in the door-ways of the windowless huts and watched us o by.

As we came down out of the altitude onto a broad ppa, I noticed severalblack-winged yellow flickers moving in their uneven flight amon& the roadsidecactus. I asked hunez del Prado about them. "They are called haq’acu in uechua",ne told me. "There is a belief prevalent amon the Indians around here that thehaq’acu is a magical bird; he can increase a woan’s reproductive povers and makeher children strong. In this reion, .pregnant womn drink a soup made of haq’acuto make their milk more abundant." 3_I"

The road neared the end of tl’epampa. We had one last glimpse ofthe great ieaks of allawalla andOcanaty lintin blue in th hi&h sun,and then they dropsied down into acountry’of valles cerrados act.allycanyons thousands of feet deep, eachone with a silver ribbon of riverthreading the valley floor, each onegreen with eucalyptus groves, brownwith barley and yellow with the- patchesof wheat or uinoa Qh 13) thathun off the almost vertical slopes.This country is the bezinning of thereat river erosion that has createdthe spires and gor&es,, the cliffs andminarets of the montana- that reenforest which slopes down to the flatjungles of the selva proper Fromthis point hi&h on a canyon wall downto the improbable land of greeneryand air sweet with the smell of plantsand tumblin water is a scant hundred

.-....---..--.-...- kilometers, if you follow the riversThis bridge was built during the below you in their fast drop to thereign of Spain’s Charles III northwest. If you head northeast, it

is just a matter of crossing oneran&e of mountains and you are standing

at Tres Cruces. Bel you, the montana drops away as a giant curtain to the juu&le,and you can look out to the east and see land that has never been explored by man.

The road took us from one canyon to the next as it followed the tributarystreams of the Rio Paucartambo. On a point high above one bend stood a group ofround stone towers about ten feet high. They were chullpas,the graves of theancient tribes. I had seen them before in Chucuito near Lake Titicaca, but thesewere in a better state of preservation, some of them tm with their roofs intact.We would ve stopped to explore them, but a large truck was highballing doyen themountainside on our tail, and I wanted to keep as much space as possible between us.

2. The term upuna is applied to the high rollin country above 4,000 met,-:rs... I am usinG-re a modern meted of spelling sounds- "c" is pronounced "ch"and "q" is a "k" made deep in the throat. The apostrephe signifies a break inthe word.

A half hour of winding down a spur canyon brought us within sight of Paucar-tambo. On the slopes above, men were stacking sacks of barley near the main build-ings of a. prosperous looking hacienda. Potatoes were being, harvested on the hill-sides, potatoes whose ancestors wew the grandfathers of all potatoes in the world,Irish or otherwise. Cattle were grazing on the valley floor by the river. An antclent bridge built during the reign of Charles III of Spain (second half of theeighteenth century) spanned the 2;mpacu river, and beyond it were the whitewashedheavy-doored colonial houses of the town. The pickup truck negotiated the inverted"V" of the bridge, and we stopped in a corner of the tiny plaza.

My first impression of the town was that it was clean cleaner than Arequipa,much cleaner thau Cuzco. The streets were narrow, most of tem too narrow for acar. Behind the great doors of ths houses were patios built in the colonial Style,each room opening on to t courtyard. There wer no internal hal/ways or stair-wlls, so that the patio was the focal point of life within each house. Puppies,guinea pigs and children scampered on the paving stones, safe in the enclosure ofth oen court.

e ate the noon meal in a fly-pecked pension looking out on the. plaza. In-dians were flocking in from the hiuterlands, the men dressed in knee-length pants,ponchos and chullos or stocking caps, the women in lonE dark skirts, bright blousesand the omniprse-nt-montera or pie-shaped hats. A paucartamb$o hacienda ownersitting with us told us that most of the Indians tried to look.as poor as possiblewhen they came to town. "It’s because of the police," he said. "If the policesee an Indian all decked out in finery, they will ask aim for his brevets. Thechances are that he Will not be carryino any papers at all, and they know it. Butif -looks well-dressed enouh to be able to pay the fine for bein without hisbrevets, they will stop him and threaten to throw him in jail unless he gives themsome money. A/qora bien, I will show you what I mean. I see one of my Indiansover .there in the plaza." The hacienda owner went to t door of the pension andsignalled to "his" Indian, a bowleged man .wearing a red poncho. "Kamuy" saidthe haoendado in Queohua. "Come here "

Ths Indian bobbed his head and shuffled overto the door. He ,started to speak but saw thathi s"owner"was in no mood for talk ar so stood inthe doorway looking at us, nervously shufflinhis bare feet.

"This is what I was talking about, said thehacendado. He turned the poncho inside out, jerk-ing the Indian around so that we could get a botts:view. The reverse side of the o0noho was a master-piece of.weaving and intricate design. Beneath itthe man wore a black tunic an unqu- one of thefew IncaiO garments still in use tod-----ay. "ly In-dians con from near ’ eros, said the hacendado"In that region they still observe some of thecustoms of the Incas. It’s probably the lastplace in tis country where you can still sethese customs in operation."

Dangling from the man’s belt was a largepouchl made of llama fleece... The Indian caught mestaring at it and went into an elaborate panto-mime, He.stuck his and into the ouch, placedit to his lips and began to chew. The pouch washis coca bag. In it were several ounces of driedcooa leaves and a ball of (W 9). Coca

.other and child fiesta-bound

bove The C’uncu coajuntodancin in th Plaza. oteheaddress and ire face mass

Cooa had stained the man’s llps dark reen. Thehacend&do let the edge o the poncho fall, OovrSnth finery beath with the drab red cloth, and the.Indian shuffled away into the crowd in the Plaza.

After lunch, L.uis Barreda and I walked overto t church to set up the recordin machines.In the back of the crch by the altar stood the.image cg the irgen del Carmen, & doll-faced irldressed in bridal white, shaded from the elem-ntsby a parasol held by a tired looking angel. Dee-o rated candles uttered in the draft before theimage. In the flickerin light we could make outthe tortured wooden images of Christ on the cross,faded paintings of the famous Cuzco School and,in a small, nich in the wall, the tongue of sameOish of the reion famed for his oratory. On’the stone floor behind us several Indians werekneelin and praying. I had heard that the indioswere deeply and fanatically religious, that thezealous friars of the Conquest had doe their jobwe but I wasn’t prepared for the look of blinddevotion on the faces of these, people, kneelinand mutterin their prayers in the half-light, asinblessings from tm greatest PatrOn of them all.

The sound of flutes and drums in the streetbrought us runnin out of the church. Obeying theancie nt cus toms, the conjuntos of dancers and musi-cians were preparing to salute the important places

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Riht: The olla conjunto.Note woo ion mass and wmmen’ shats. Harp with huge sound-in board is typical mestizoinstrument of tle reion

in the town be fore they gavethemselves up to the spirit ofthe fiesta. They would dance infront of the church, thn in frontof the SUb-prefect, s office, thenmake a tour of the Plaa. Thatdone, they would be free to per-form who rover and whenever theypleased. We placed th recordinmachines on the church steps andwaited.

music came closer, and

A Diablo dancer infull regl ia.

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suddenly the streets leadin .to the ehu8: erefilled with masked children and spectators. Be-hind them cam the first c0njuno, dncers firstand then the musicians. Nevin in two filesdown the street, th dancers strutted to thethin, oddly beautiful musi c. They wore blackboots, white pants and. colored shirts. Overtheir faces were heavy.plaster masks maskswith pink cheeks and bl end moustache s In thecenter of the Kroup, a ludicrous bride an6 groom,"both masked, wheeled and cavorted. This was theconjunto Aoqa Chileno, a satire datin from theWar of the Pacific (1879-88) when a grou of Chilealprisoners of war were brougit to Paucartambo towork on t roads. The sight of these light-skinnedmen n tmir high boots was evidently too much forthe paueartambino sense of humor. T conjuntoAoqa Chileno (enemy Chilean) was. formed arh dancedin the festival of the Carmen each year. Some timeao, t band disappeared from the scene, but wasrevived recently by the society of town rain dealemsas their contribution to the festival. The effect-iveness of the Aoqa Chilenos as a burlese of theChileans-can be measured by the fact that a chilenolecturer travelling in these parts a few years agodemanded that the conjunto be abolished on the.grounds that it was-damaging to .international re-!ations between the two countries.

The A0qa Chilenos dced on t atrium of the church to he music of their hiredorchestra of harp, small uitar, snare drum and two wooden pito.o or flutes. Thebride ar groom iged up and down the line_s of stomping, booted dancers, pau@ing nowand then to wave at the crowd.

Each conjunto took its turn in front of the church doors. First, the Aoqa Chilenos.Then th C’uncus (see footnote 3) dressed as mythical savages from the selva. Thesewere the Kapaq C’uncus, the rich savages, wearing .feather headdresses, masks .of finewire mesh, and bright embroidered skirts ’of cotton and silk. In their hands theycarried unstrung blackwood bows, the only piece of equipment to be found in reality inthe Peruvian junle. In the countless figures of their dace, they erformed singly,in pairs, d in a quadrille hich bore a startling resemblance to a Scottish sworddance (using crossed bow staves instead of blades). After the C’uncus came the. con-junto of the Contradanza, dancing the old Spanish figures in costumes that satirizedthe dress of the colonial period. Then came the Negros, a stomping band of men wearingblac arh gold masks ari long robes, and carrying wooden staffs carved into the shapeof a clenched fist. Then the K’acampas and the Waka-Waka and the Qollas. This last-group was made up of men dressed as women, dancing a mincing dance, weaving strandsof wool on their miniature whorls. The ollas acted as-official minstrels to theVirgin. They were the 0nly gro up that sang, and their songs were plaintive prayersto the Carmen- simply, constructed songs made.beautiful by te liquid sound of theuechua in them.

As each conjunto performed, it was attended by a host of youngsters and adults.These were the maq’tas , t masked clowns of the festi.v&!. They scampered throughthe cr(d pinchin& women, trpping men, stealing fruit from .the vendors, teasing thedancers. One man carried th traditional suylu, the skinned lamb. He dangled it infront of the crowd, petting it,. feeding it candy. The maq’tas kept upa constantpatter of joes spoken in Quechua, keeping the crowd laughing and feeling happy.

The star performers, howeve.r, were the devils the Diablos. They .wore maskssimilar to those of the Bolivian devil dancers, and their costumes weredecorated-’ith lass ornaments and embroidered with serpent designs. .Their dance figures werecomplicated and well performed. ehind their heavy masks they chirped :and chattered

like crazy monkeys. In the afte.rnoon, t "gente decente" ordecent people of thetown led a parade of dancers and agestruck Indians through1 the streets to the church.This was the ceremony of the cera apakuy, the offering of the.candles to the Virgin.Women carried flowers and miniature dolls dressed as t Carmen, and the men helddecorated tapers in their hands.

The seating order inside the church was a mute illustration of the way societyoerates in this small (population: 1,700) provincial tn. At thefront near thealtar sat the upper class, the decent people.- men on the left, women on the right..Behind them sat what Nuez del Prado terms the "mozos", the-mestizos, Behind themestizos, the chol.os or esternized "town" Indians. At the door of the church,kneeling on the stones, the "iudios" made their devotions. The town baud stood ina corner ready to strike u a march when the priest had ended the service.

All afternoon the dancing wnt on. When the sun dropped behind the high canyonwalls, bonfires were lit in the streets against the cold of the mountain night. Thepeople gathered at the chicha stalls and watched the chat-in Diablos as they ranand jumped through, the flames. In the Plaza, an elaborate display of fireworks wasgoing on. Castillos or bamboo platforms supportinG every imaginable type of firecracker and pinwheel rocked and shuddered as the fuses were touched off. Sevoral ofthe castillos .ere constructed along a religious line; effigies and portraits of theVirgin were constantly appearing amid the smoke and explosions of the "fueos arti-ficiales". Pinwheels and rockets occasionally went astray and crashed into the crowd,but spirits were too high to be lowered by bruises and blistered skin.

In ths night, te dancers-.still paraded in ths streets. Listening to the musictat penetrated the thick wals of our .rom, we could name each oonjunto as it passedby the sinple, hypnotic melody of the pasacalle (street. song). Long after I hadcrawled into my sleepin bag, I ard the thinwailings-of the pit0 ouide in thenight.

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Fireworks display: a burningcross in the night

The festival lasted four days. In theearly mornings, masses were sung : the Virgin.She was carried to the ancient bridge, and thpeople knelt and wept as the priest prayed othe four winds of_ the province of Paucartambofor benedictions to fall on the laud. TheC’uncus and Qollas staged a mock battle and amock burial, and the sponsors of the fiestabuilt a platform in the Plaza from which theythrew fruit, bread and other largesse to thecrowd. Everything proceeded according to.traditions that have their roots in the verybeginnings of Spauis occupation. Ten, afterthe festival,. Paucartambo ent back to beingherself a tiny provincial capital, cut offfrom the rest of the country bythe canyons andcliffs that surround her.

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The Fiesta de la Virgen del Carmen is ex-pensive, l10reover, the cost is borne by onefamily th arguyqq. Every year, a man ischosen or volunteers to sponsor the. forthcomingfiesta. He must pay for food and-fireworks,entertainment and the necessary church supplies(includin the rich dresses which clothe theVirgin). The man and his family may well bebankrupt when .the bill comes due,but the positionof Karguyoq is still sought after for the innensesocial prestige it holds. This year, the family

I- 14 -7-

0rdoez acted as Karuy.ou. Their bill, accdrdin to iuez del Prado, -ill come toabout 30,000 soles (S$ f,500). Of course, thej had been aided by contributionsfrom friends and th more devout members of the congregation. Nevertheless, thebtden of the expense lay on Sr. Ordoez’ shoulders, and 30,000 soles is a tremedoussum to pay out, be a man rich or poor.

xpe.nsiveThe business of financir the conjuntos is anotherproposition. Each conjunto

is in reality a social club. It has its president and its dues-payin members, itstraditional dances and costumes. T} cost of the costumes each Diablo costuncosts over one hundred dollars and te fees of the hired orchestra (usually madeup of Indians) are often prohibitive, and for that reason many conjuntos have beenforced to o out of business. If it d not been for the &uild of &rain dealers,for instance, the Aoqa Chileno roup would not have been able to dance in thisyear’ s fiesta.

I have mentiod that Faucartambo has two patron Vir..ins. The story of thetwo "patronas" is the story of the "casta" system workin at its most efficientlevel. In the days of the Viceroys and the Spanish kings, the Indians and theupper class feuded as to which Virgin should be the atrona of the to,ran Rosarioor Carmen. The ar&unmnt was brou&ht before t representatives of the Kin&, whodecided that the Virgin of Rosario was the rightful patrona. The re#resentativssalso decided, however, that in view of the fact that the Hosario as vorshippedby the Indians and noc by th "&ente decente", the latter should be iven a sop toappease their a&rieved feeliGs. The upper classes, the refore, were permitted tocontinue worshippin their particular #atrona, the Virgin of Carmen. Thus it isthat each year on the sixteenth of July, th mestizos and bl,cos hold their fiestain honor of the Carnmn while the Indians watch from the sidelines. On October theseventh, the roles are reversed, and the "ente" are the spectators.

The fiesta of th Viren del Carmen, therefore, is a festival sponsored by the"decente" ad performed almost entirely by mestizos (th xce.tions beiu the Diabloand maeno conjuntos, ’:hich are made up of u,r class youn mn). Th. only@erformiu in the fiesta are the hired musicians. The mestizo conjuntos dancefor the sake of devotion to the Virgin until they drop, while the crovds of idianslean aainst the walls of the buildin&s, drink chicha szd watch the frenziedactivities in the streets. This is the only timeOf the year when the social roles are reversed,when the Indian relaxes and the mestizo works.

Sincerely,

illism H. acLei sh

Received New York 8/5/55.